Revisionary Taxonomy within the Acmaeoderini

"The jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) are the 8th largest family of beetles and fill various important ecological roles including decomposers, pollinators, and leaf miners. The cosmopolitan buprestid tribe Acmaeoderini is extremely diverse, with more than 700 species across 14 genera. Historically, the acmaederines from Afro-Eurasia have received thorough morphological treatment and nearly all species from these areas have been separated into various genus and subgenus groupings. Contrastingly, past studies in the Americas have been mostly restricted to alpha-level taxonomic descriptions, and only a very small percentage of species are placed into any formal group. The aim of this study was to conduct both higher-level and lower-level taxonomic studies on the Nearctic Acmaeoderini as a means of beginning to understand the Nearctic members of the group. This was achieved through a number of different studies and approaches, including a higher-level molecular study, a species-group-level molecular study, a review of a genus and species-group using morphological data, and descriptive studies of adults and larvae. Molecular projects in this study employed the use of the mitochondrial COI gene and analyses were conducted using maximum likelihood trees. While low branch support was seen in the roots of the trees, higher support was evident throughout various crowns, even with many species having long branch lengths. The Nearctic Acmaeoderini were recovered as non-monophyletic, and the Acmaeodera pulchella complex was found to be nonmonophyletic by species, with low divergence between all specimens. Due to this, the A. pulchella complex is proposed to be a single species, Acmaeodera pulchella, with A. mixta synonymized under it and A. immaculata downgraded to subspecific status. The Acmaeoderopsis was morphologically examined and a key to species was determined. A total of 12 species were recovered, with Acmaeoderopsis prosopis proposed as a synonym of Acmaeoderopsis hualpaiana. The Acmaeodera pinalorum group was reviewed, and a new subgenus Acmaeodera (Acmaeopenicillia) was proposed for the 7 species in the group. The larva of Acmaeodera immaculata was described and illustrated with comparisons made to the larvae of Palearctic Acmaeodera. Brachmaeodera tantilla was confirmed to occur in Madagascar, and the ovipositor and aedeagus of this species was examined."